The big increase in airline baggage fees over time

Data Editor

Data Editor

In 2014, Delta Air Lines charged more than $860 million in baggage fees. In all, air carriers charged passengers checking luggage a total of more than $3.5 billion, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

That’s a 660 percent increase since 2007 when baggage fees amounted to only $424 million.

Baggage fees began rising sharply in 2008 during the recession as fuel prices rose and ticket sales declined. Airlines like United began charging about $15 per bag to boost revenues.

Today, it’s more rare for an airline not to charge passengers to check a bag— Jet Blue was one of the few holdouts but caved to pressure from shareholders in June.

Baggage fees by airline

Click on the luggage to see how much money each airline collected in baggage fees for a given year. 2015 data includes only figures through July.

Source: U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics

Andrew is a data editor at TrendCT.org and the Connecticut Mirror. He teaches data visualization at Central Connecticut State University as well intro to data journalism at Wesleyan University as a Koeppel Fellow.
He was a founding producer of The Boston Globe's Data Desk where he used a variety of methods to visualize or tell stories with data. Andrew also was an online producer at The Virginian-Pilot and a staff writer at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He’s a Metpro Fellow, a Chips Quinn Scholar, and a graduate of the University of Texas.

Jake is a former managing editor of The Ridgefield Press, a Hersam Acorn newspaper. He worked for the community newspaper chain as a reporter and editor for five years before joining the Mirror staff. He studied professional writing at Western Connecticut State University and is a graduate student in software engineering at Harvard Extension School.